


You Don't Pronounce the "T"s in "Toronto"

by everywinter



Series: Boyfriend in Canada [1]
Category: After School Club (TV), Day6 (Band)
Genre: Gen, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Multi, Online Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-05 16:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14623050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everywinter/pseuds/everywinter
Summary: Jae picks fights with a stranger on the internet."Longboards aren't skateboards! There has to be some sort of distinction between the two, or else where would we draw the line? What about Penny-boards? SCOOTERS? THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME SORT OF ORDER IN THE WORLD, ERIC."





	1. Chapter 1

Jimin would sooner let Jae shave her entire head than willingly admit it, but she’d really been looking forward to their bi-weekly movie night this week. Eric always complained when she, Jae, and Kevin barged into his apartment every other week, but his pantry was always stocked with that fake-butter, microwave popcorn that Jae shoved into his mouth by the fistful, so Jimin knew he was full of it.

 

Movie nights were really just a thinly veiled excuse to pile onto Eric’s giant L-shaped couch and engage in, what Jimin refused to call, cuddling.

 

Tonight, Kevin had fallen asleep 15 minutes into the musical (WHICH HE’D PICKED) and was softly snoring, mouth hanging open slightly, head on Jae’s shoulder. Jae’s long legs were stretched out on one end of the sectional while Jimin sat on Kevin’s other side, cold toes shoved between the couch cushions. Eric sat at the end, phone in one hand, while his free arm rested comfortable on the back of the couch.

 

“Stop shoving into me!”

 

Eric’s bony shoulder was shoving into her back, but Jimin refused to move. “I wouldn’t be shoving into you if you’d just given me the end like I wanted!”

 

It was a well-worn argument, one they had almost every single movie night, and one that Eric always won. Something about it being his couch, his _house_ , and “You should respect me because I’m the oldest” which inevitably made Jimin launch into the “you are AMERICAN” argument.

 

She’d slowly been letting the familiar train of half-hearted bickering and the sounds of the movie lull her into a gentle doze when Jae all of a sudden let out a blood-curdling scream.

 

Kevin was unceremoniously shoved off of Jae’s shoulder when the taller boy jumped up and began to pace around the living room, still wailing, and fell back into Jimin, squishing her into Eric who’d dropped his phone and let out his own scream of shock.

 

“Jae, shut the hell up!” Eric grabbed a couch cushion and lobbed it at the blond, hitting him squarely in the back of the head. “My neighbours are going to file a noise complaint!”

 

Kevin groaned and flopped face-forward into the spot Jae had vacated. He buried his face into the blanket Jae had abandoned. Jimin resisted the urge to smother him.

 

She scowled and tried her best to pull herself back up into a seated position. “Jae, what the actual fuck?”

 

He looked deranged, blond hair sticking up in all different directions from where he’d been running his hands through it. “I got banned!”

 

Eric looked as confused and tired as Jimin felt. “What.”

 

“My account,” Jae wailed, flinging himself onto the floor of Eric’s living room. “I got banned from the skateboarding subreddit.”

 

 _If only looks could kill_ Jimin thought wistfully as Eric leveled the full force of his ‘disapproving face’ at Jae.

 

"Longboards aren't skateboards! There has to be some sort of distinction between the two, or else where would we draw the line? What about Penny-boards? SCOOTERS? THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME SORT OF ORDER IN THE WORLD, ERIC." Jae rambled on without pause, “there has to be some sort of distinction between the two! You can’t even pop a proper ollie on one of those monstrosities! And you look stupid carrying them around! There's no street-cred!”

 

He was blinking a mile a minute and Jimin could see the tremble in his lips even as he continued to rant. “And what kind of username is YoungK? More like Young-cuck!”

 

“Cuck doesn’t even start with a ‘k’.” Eric corrected, attempting to cover Jimin’s ears with his hands. “And stop! You’re corrupting Jimin!”

 

“Eric, I have internet access, I know what a cuck is.”

 

A hand shot into the air. “Is it a sex thing?”

 

Jimin patted the back of Kevin’s head. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

 

Kevin turned to face Jae, a crease from the blanket on his cheek. “I have literally never cared less about the words coming from your mouth.”

 

Jimin pressed her face into her hands. “I’m going to wring your neck.”

 

“Wait, was that a chicken little joke?” Jae’s eyes narrowed momentarily before he groaned again. “You guys don’t understand. I’ve gotten over 10k in karma from that sub and now I’m _banned._ People there know me! I’ve got my own special flair and everything!”

 

Eric had taken off his glasses and was rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Amber was right, I wasn’t ready to take care of three children.”

 

“Ya!” Jimin twisted to punch Eric in the arm. “Who you calling a child? You’re the one who wanted to watch Up tonight!”

 

He’d managed to grab her by the wrist and was doing his best to dig the fingers of his free hand into Jimin’s side. “You shut your mouth! Up is a timeless classic that spans all age groups! Just because it’s animated it doesn’t mean it’s specifically for kids!”

 

“You guys aren’t even listing to me.” Jae whined, “Can you two stop your weird flirting for, like, two seconds and pay attention like proper friends?”

 

Jimin and Eric’s indignant protests were ignored.

 

Kevin had resumed his face-down position on the couch he gave a muffled, “I’m listening. I just don’t care.”

 

“Do you have a death wish?” Jae popped up from his place on the floor and grabbed the previously discarded couch cushion. He pressed it to the back of Kevin’s head, and slowly began lean into it. “I’m not afraid to go back to jail.”

 

“Really?” Eric raised an eyebrow. “You’re all skinny and pretty. You’d do badly in jail.”

 

“Aww, you think I’m pretty?” Jae was all but on top of the cushion at this point and Jimin could hear Kevin’s protests slowly become more frantic.

 

“Sure,” Eric shrugged. “Wonpil’s prettier though.”

 

Jimin couldn’t remember the last time she saw Jae look so offended. She loved it.

 

“And you’ve gotta get off Kevin, man. I think he’s stopped struggling and that worries me a little.”

 

Jae quickly jumped off and Kevin his face to the side with a gasp. “I’m fine.” His face was bright red. “I was just readying myself for death’s sweet embrace.”

 

“The only kind of embrace you really have to look forward to, huh?”

 

“Damn, girl, what is with you today?” Jae rubbed Kevin’s back sympathetically. “I haven’t seen you this savage since that night Jackson accidentally grabbed your boob during that impromptu game of tag he was playing with Mark.”

 

“I’m _actually_ not afraid to go to jail, don’t test me.” Jimin gestured to Kevin, who still hadn’t made any indication that he was getting up. “And you literally just tried to kill Kevin with a decorative couch cushion. Any damage I may cause is purely emotional.”

 

“How are you even comfortable like that?” Eric demanded, “Your legs are literally bent at a 45 degree angel off the couch and your neck’s twisted all weird.”

 

Kevin made a small movement Jimin assumed was a shrug. “It’s not so bad. I’ve been bent in weirder positions.”

 

Eric cringed. “I’m just going to assume you’re referring to yoga for the sake of my own sanity.”

 

“No slut shaming!” Jae yelled, “This is a safe space!”

 

Kevin frowned. “Wait, did you just call me a slut?”

 

“No shame, bro.” Jae tossed Kevin a salute. “Let your flag fly.”

 

“Okay, let’s just shut the hell up,” Jimin said, voice sugary sweet, “so we can figure out if Harry picks Sally or whatever.”

 

Kevin gives her a mildly baffled look. “I thought we were watching Moulin Rouge?”

 

“That’s not shutting up.” Jimin shoved her toes back under the couch cushions and tried to get herself comfortable again. “We’re going to have movie night even if it kills one of you.”

 

“Pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes…” Eric grumbled, leaning down to pick his phone back up from the ground as Jimin positioned a decorative couch cushion against him. “Okay, shutting up now. Holy, you’re demanding…” He added at her death glare.

 

“That’s not shutting up either.”

 

The apartment calmed for around a minute as Nicole Kidman tried to convince the man with the mustache that she and Ewan McGregor were practicing for a play rather than five seconds away from sucking face.

 

Until she heard Eric groan quietly and turned to look at him, face already pulled into a frown.

 

He passed her his phone, which was opened to their group chat, without comment.

 

_All Stupid Children_

 

[21:34]

 **chickenBIG:** I’m just saying.

 **chickenBIG:** this little bitch is lucky he’s all the way across the world or I’d fight him

 **chickenBIG:** catch me outside how bout dat

 **chickenBIG:** I thought Canadians were supposed to be nice???

 

 **irlAdult:**  I’m going to strangle you in your sleep.

 

“Ya!” Eric snatched his phone back from where he’d been reading behind Jimin’s shoulder. “No sending death threats from my phone!”

 

“I’m just saying what you’re already thinking.”

 

“Oh, so it’s okay if he talks, but not if we do?” Kevin pouted, “Not fair.”

 

“This is my damn house!” Eric gestured to the door, jostling Jimin slightly. “Feel free to leave!”

 

“Life isn’t fair.” Jae said, “A whole month.”

 

“Wait.” Kevin turned to look at Jae. “Are you telling me that after all that fuss, it’s only a temporary ban? For a month?”

 

Jimin sighed and let her head thump back against Eric’s shoulder, drawing a shocked “Ow!” from the older man. She loved them, she really did, but she’s also really been hoping to have one of their more peaceful nights.

 

It’d just been a trying day overall, starting with her favourite lipstick being dropped, and trampled by frantic university students, on her way to class that morning and only escalating until she’d had to walk 20 minutes from the train station to Eric’s house in the sudden rain because the shuttle bus she usually took had broken down right in front of her stop. Eric had put her wet clothes in the dryer for her and lent her some sweats and a hoodie, but Jimin just couldn’t muster her usual passion for mischief.

 

“There’s something wrong with us.”

 

Eric patted her head gently. “They say that the first stop to recovery is acceptance.”

 

“I just wanted to be ‘friends who napped’ and not ‘friends who flipped shit’ for once.” She whined, “Is that really too much to ask for?”

 

“Just close your eyes and pretend to sleep.” Eric suggested, “Sunjin told me that’s what he does when Wonpil won’t stop asking him questions before bed.”

 

Jae and Kevin continued to bicker from their end of the couch.

 

“Wait, is that what you do so we’ll stop talking to you when we sleep over?” Eric cleared his throat sheepishly but didn’t answer. “I know your secret now. You’ll never know peace again, Eric Nam.”

 

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll take my chances. Now close your eyes and start pretending. Those two will probably quiet down to avoid waking you if they think you’re already asleep. They’re terrified of you.”

 

“It’s a gift.”

 

Eric pulled the hood of the navy hoddie up. “Sleep.”

 

Dubiously, Jimin closed her eyes. Jae was still ardently telling Kevin about how YoungK was probably the devil incarnate. The room was warm Jimin curled her toes inside the too long sweatpants and she felt herself drifting off. Jimin fell asleep to the swell of music declaring “winter to spring, I will love you until the end of time”.

 

_All Stupid Children_

 

[11:23]

 **chickenBIG:**   real talk though

 **chickenBIG:**   I’m gonna troll this twerp until my month is up

 **chickenBIG:**   if I’ve gotta suffer, he’s gotta suffer too

 

 **Superkev:**   Jae, don’t

 **Superkev:**   Seriously man just let it go

 

 **yagirljamie:** lol, Jae letting it go

 

 **chickenBIG:** brb stalking his post history

 

 **yagirljamie:**   I live for the drama

 

[13:02]

 **chickenBIG:** guys.

 **chickenBIG:** he’s fucking hot

 

 **irlAdult:**   ???

 **irlAdult:**   Plot twist????

 

 **yagirljamie:**   L M A O

 **yagirljamie:**   OF COURSE HE IS

 

 **chickenBIG:** his hair is all blond and pretty and ish

 **chickenBIG:** I can’t handle this what the actual hell

 **chickenBIG:** I don’t even like long hair

 **chickenBIG:** on anyone

 **chickenBIG:** and I mean his hair isn’t strictly speaking long

 **chickenBIG:** but it’s long

 **chickenBIG:** ger

 

 **Superkev:** wait, he’s the kind of guy who posts pics of himself online?

 **Superkev:** what sub were they from?

 

 **yagirljamie:**   (pleasesaygaymersgonewild)

 

 **chickenBIG:** NO YOU PERVERT

 **chickenBIG:** r/streetwear

 **chickenBIG:** I never knew techwear could be so…clingy

 

 **irlAdult:**   Who’s the pervert now?

 

 **chickenBIG:** you guys

 **chickenBIG:** Y O U G U Y S

 **chickenBIG:** he’s a musician

 **chickenBIG:** what the actual shit

 

 **yagirljamie:** Is he good?

 

 **chickenBIG:** idk oh just found a link to some song he posted

 **chickenBIG:** imma check it out

 

[20:03]

 **Superkev:**   ???

 **Superkev:**   @Jae

 **Superkev:**   ???did you die????

 

 **irlAdult:**   One can only hope.

 

 **yagirljamie:** lol

 

 **chickenBIG:** first of all rude

 **chickenBIG:** second of all who the hell uses ‘one’ in casual conversation?

 **chickenBIG:** also

 **chickenBIG:** bitches

 **chickenBIG:** I am shook.

 

 **yagirljamie:** ugh, you’re the whitest Korean I know, don’t say shook

 

 **chickenBIG:**   let me live

 **chickenBIG:** but you guys

 **chickenBIG:** he’s so good

 **chickenBIG:** he’s got this cover of bts’ sea and it makes me want to die

 **chickenBIG:** hes got this whole youtube channel

 **chickenBIG:** and I’ve listened to literally all of the songs on it

 **chickenBIG:** and he raps too

 **chickenBIG:** he sings and raps

 **chickenBIG:** and I’m pretty sure he plays the guitar bass and keyboard for all his covers???

 **chickenBIG:** one of the commenters were saying how much he’s improved with his mixing too

 **chickenBIG:** he literally does it all

 **chickenBIG:** I think having heart attack

 

 **yagirljamie:**   karma’s got its kiss for you, girl

 **yagirljamie:**   it’s because you were gonna troll him for something that was really your fault

 **yagirljamie:**   picking internet fights with people

 **yagirljamie:**   shaaaaame

 

 **Superkev:** all I can hear is the bell ringing from game of thrones whenever someone says that word now

 

 **chickenBIG:** neeeeerd

 

 **Superkev:**   shut the hell up, I’ve seen your InuYasha posters, you weeb trash

 

 **irlAdult:** HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 **irlAdult:** EXPOSED

 

 **chickenBIG:** to whom???

 **chickenBIG:** you’re the one who owns a Naruto headband

 

 **irlAdult:**   Whatever, ShojoBeat

 

 **yagirljamie:** if you’re all of a sudden not down for shojo anymore, I want all of my hana kimi books back

 

 **irlAdult:** Shutting up now.

 

 **chickenBIG:** (whipped)

 

 **yagirljamie:**   Do you want to die?

 

 **Superkev:** oh shit, capital letters, punctuation, and no contractions

 **Superkev:** I both fear and respect you

 **Superkev:** for someone so small, you’re awfully frightening

 

 **yagirljamie:**   I try.

 

[23:05]

 **chickenBIG:**   guys

 **chickenBIG:**   he

 **chickenBIG:**   he just dm-ed me??

 

 **yagirljamie:** oh shit, is he trying to start something??

 **yagirljamie:** don’t worry, bro, I’ve got your flower

 

 **chickenBIG:** nononono

 **chickenBIG:** guys

 **chickenBIG:** he apologized????

 **chickenBIG:** I’m so confused

 **chickenBIG:** he said he was really genuinely sorry and said how he’d had a really bad run in with some stranger calling him a f***** last time he was riding around and it really messed with him so he got way defensive when we were arguing about it???

 **chickenBIG:** but I was the one who was way too uptight about it??

 **chickenBIG:** what’s happening to me

 **chickenBIG:** who the hell apologizes to a stranger after a fight on the internet

 **chickenBIG:** it just doesn’t happen

 

 **yagirljamie:**   daaamn, could it be, one of the rumored few…?

 

 **irlAdult:**????

 

 **yagirljamie:**   boys, its finally happened, we’ve found one

 **yagirljamie:**   a Nice Man.

 

 **irlAdult:**   ??????????????

 **irlAdult:**   I’m a nice man?????????

 

 **Superkev:**   you’re super nice, Eric

 **Superkev:**   but are you a Nice Man?

 

 **irlAdult:** What does that even mean, I’m super nice!!

 

 **yagirljamie:** yeah, you are super nice and considerate and gentle and shit, but Jae here’s got himself a Nice Man

 

 **chickenBIG:**   oh

 **chickenBIG:**   sorry

 **chickenBIG:**   I just had to go throw up a little

 

 **yagirljamie:**   Jae, shut the fuck up

 **yagirljamie:**   just because our relationship is based solely on affection shown through roasting, doesn’t mean all of mine are

 **yagirljamie:**   and you’ve found yourself a good one

 **yagirljamie:**  

 **yagirljamie:**   on the INTERNET

 **yagirljamie:**   that’s more rare than a unicorn

 

 **chickenBIG:**   omg he’s bi too

 **chickenBIG:**   an Actual Unicorn

 

 **Superkev:**   I thought it was the bi/poly/girl mix that was the Unicorn?

 

 **yagirljamie:**   shhhh, Kevin, let Jae have his Unicorn moment

 **yagirljamie:**   his sexy, golden, bi, Unicorn

 **yagirljamie:**   also, send pics pls

 

 **chickenBIG:**   HELL TO THE NO

 **chickenBIG:**   I know you guys

 **chickenBIG:**   you’d google reverse image search the shit out of him

 **chickenBIG:**   I’m not subjecting this Nice Man to that

 

 **yagirljamie:**   :(

 

 **chickenBIG:**   LMAO SAVE IT FOR THE OTHER TWO

 **chickenBIG:**   my heart is hardened

 

 **yagirljamie:**   >:(

 

 **irlAdult:** Bet that’s not the only thing.

 

 **Superkev:** OMG

 **Superkev:** DID ERIC JUST MAKE A DIRTY JOKE??

 

 **yagirljamie:**   remember that time we were playing charades and the prompt was watching porn

 

 **irlAdult:**   dont

 

 **yagirljamie:**   and Eric’s instinct was to immediately stand up

 

 **irlAdult:**   Literally no one said anything even remotely related to that.

 **irlAdult:**   Why you gotta do me dirty like this, Jiminnie.

 

 **chickenBIG:**   lol

 

 **yagirljamie:**   go ahead if you wanna die, Park Jaehyung

 

 **chickenBIG:** woah

 **chickenBIG:** pulling out the fullnames

 **chickenBIG:** nah

 **chickenBIG:** it’s too easy

 

 **Superkev:** like you?

 

 **chickenBIG:** WOW WHAT IS IT SHIT ON JAE DAY

 

 **Superkev:** it does rhyme kind of nicely.

 

 **chickenBIG:**  I hate all of you


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for everyone who read my last chapter, comment, and/or left kudos! Everyone's been so nice and I really appreciate it.

[23:04]

 **YoungK:**   So yeah

 **YoungK:** REALLY not a fan of roast beef

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   dude

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I literally just threw up in my mouth a little

 

 **YoungK:**   LOL

 **YoungK:**   Sorry, man

 **YoungK:**   You’re the one who wanted to know!

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   that’s nasty as hell

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I can’t believe you didn’t just fully convert to vegetarianism right then and there

 

 **YoungK:**   I

 **YoungK:**   I can’t believe you would say something so horrible to me

 **YoungK:**   I thought we were friends now

 **YoungK:**   I thought we’d move past this whole “being mean to each other on the internet” thing

 **YoungK:**   Damn, dude

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   omg

 **alljae.everyjae:**   you’re so dramatic

 

 **YoungK:**   I can’t believe you’d stab me in the back like this

 **YoungK:**   I though these 2 months of internet friendship meant something to you

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   dude

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I don’t even know your real name

 **alljae.everyjae:**   do you know how weird it is to refer to you by your username in my head?

 

 **YoungK:**   I thought I told you??

 **YoungK:**   My bad

 **YoungK:**   It’s Younghyun

 **YoungK:**   Or Brian

 **YoungK:**   Whichever’s easier for you

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   …

 **alljae.everyjae:**   are you telling me you got to pick your own name and you chose BRIAN?

 

 **YoungK:**   What’s wrong with Brian??

 **YoungK:**   Brian’s a good name!

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   Brian’s the name of the guy who brings a pastrami sandwich to school every single day for lunch

 **alljae.everyjae:**   Brian’s the guy who played French horn in band

 **alljae.everyjae:**   Brian’s the name of the guy who was a mathathlete or something

 

 **YoungK:**   …

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   omg

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I got something right didn’t I

 **alljae.everyjae:**   PLEASE tell me it wasn’t the pastrami sandwich thing

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I hate lunch meat

 

 **YoungK:**   …

 **YoungK:**   Technically

 **YoungK:**   It was math Olympics…

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   o m g

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I can’t even breathe right now

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I have actual tears in my eyes

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I’m laughing so hard

 

 **YoungK:**   Shut up

 **YoungK:**   It was actually really fun, okay??

 **YoungK:**   We got to go on trips and stuff

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   did you have uniforms?

 **alljae.everyjae:**   please tell me you had uniforms

 

 **YoungK:**   I’m not talking to you anymore.

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   aww

 **alljae.everyjae:**   come on

 **alljae.everyjae:**   Brian

 **alljae.everyjae:**   dude

 **alljae.everyjae:**   are you really not going to answer me?

 **alljae.everyjae:**   holy shit are you actually mad?

 **alljae.everyjae:**   was that period an actual angry period?

 **alljae.everyjae:**   come on

 **alljae.everyjae:**   you know I was just kidding right?

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I’m sure you rocked that uniform

 **alljae.everyjae:**   okay

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings

 **alljae.everyjae:**   sometimes I can take the teasing too far

 

 **YoungK:**   DUDE RELAX

 **YoungK:**   I literally just had to go and microwave my lunch and left my phone on the table

 **YoungK:**   Don’t worry, my feelings aren’t hurt, I know it was dorky

 **YoungK:**   But I don’t regret it, I met my best friend Terry doing it

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   is Terry the guy in your lost stars cover?

 

 **YoungK:**   Yeah, he’s a really close friend

 **YoungK:**   Wait

 **YoungK:**   How did you know about that?

 **YoungK:**   Did you creep my comment history???

 **YoungK:**   How far back did you go??

 **YoungK:**   Did you watch my Youtube videos???

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   …

 **alljae.everyjae:**   well

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I can’t exactly say no now

 **alljae.everyjae:**   yeah

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I mean

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I watched a couple of them

 

 **YoungK:**   Oh

 **YoungK:**   What did you think?

 **YoungK:**   Honest opinion

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   dude

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I thought you were freaking amazing

 **alljae.everyjae:**   your voice is so smooth and you know how to play to your strengths

 **alljae.everyjae:**   and there’s something about how happy you look when singing that makes me feel happy too

 

 **YoungK:**   Oh

 **YoungK:**   Wow

 **YoungK:**   Thank you so much!

 **YoungK:**   I’m seriously so flustered right now, wow

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   don’t have to thank me

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I’m just telling it like it is

 

 **YoungK:**   Now you really have me at a disadvantage

 **YoungK:**   You know my name, what I look like, what I sound like…

 **YoungK:**   I’ve just been assuming your name is Jae this whole time

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   you’re right my name’s Jae

 **alljae.everyjae:**  you can creep my post history if you want

 **alljae.everyjae:**   but I don’t post pictures of myself online

 **alljae.everyjae:**   stranger danger yo

 

 **YoungK:**   You just told me your name, I know where you work, what city you live in, and we’ve been having pretty in depth conversations about your everyday habits for the past 2 months

 **YoungK:**   We’re waaaaaaay past stranger danger

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   yeah

 **alljae.everyjae:**   but Jae’s a nickname

 **alljae.everyjae:**   keeping it mysterious

 

 **YoungK:**   Why are you like this

 **YoungK:**   Equivalent exchange!!

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   …

 **alljae.everyjae:**   did you just make an fma reference?

 

 **YoungK:**   Jae, we’re both Asian men in our late twenties, there is NO WAY that we didn’t watch anime at some point in our teenage years

 **YoungK:**   Hell yeah, it was an FMA reference

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   the original or brotherhood?

 

 **YoungK:**   WHAT SORT OF QUESTION IS THAT?

 **YoungK:**   Brotherhood

 **YoungK:**   I’m not some sort of uncultured swine

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   oh thank god

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I thought I was going to have to make up some sort of excuse to never talk to you again

 

 **YoungK:**   I mean, the original has its own sort of nostalgic place in my heart, but brotherhood was actually completed and made sense

 **YoungK:**   And it gave me the opportunity to cry a third time over Mase

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   ed… ward… ed-ward… nii-san, let’s play…

 

 **YoungK:**   W H Y

 **YoungK:**   I HAVE TO GO BACK TO WORK IN 5 MINUTES

 **YoungK:**   NOW I’M ALL MESSED UP

**alljae.everyjae:**   dude

 **alljae.everyjae:**   this is nothing

 **alljae.everyjae:**   NOTHING

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I accidentally told Jimin how badly that whole arc messed me up

 **alljae.everyjae:**   didn’t hear anything about it for a while when all of a sudden

 **alljae.everyjae:**   she sents me a different meme about it every single day for 2 months

 **alljae.everyjae:**   2 MONTHS

 **alljae.everyjae:**   turns out she, Kevin, and Eric had just been stock-piling them

 

 **YoungK:**   Omg

 **YoungK:**   Your friend is a fucking hero

**alljae.everyjae:**   good to know my emotional trauma is amusing to you

 

 **YoungK:**   What can I say, I’m a man who finds joy in all things

 **YoungK:**   I have to get back to work though, my next class is here

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   boooo

 

 **YoungK:**   Stop pouting and go to sleep

 **YoungK:**   You’re going to mess up your sleep cycle again

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   whatever

 **alljae.everyjae:**   worth it

 

 **YoungK:**   Ugh

 **YoungK:**   Stop trying to be cute

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   trying?

 

 **YoungK:**   …

 **YoungK:**   Succeeding

 **YoungK:**   Now stop fishing for compliments and go to sleep

 **YoungK:**   I’ll talk to you tomorrow

 **YoungK:**   Sweet dreams

 

 **alljae.everyjae:**   night!

 **alljae.everyjae:**   I’ll talk to you when I wake up

 **alljae.everyjae:**   have a good day at work

 **alljae.everyjae:**   also

 **alljae.everyjae:**   you should add me on line

 **alljae.everyjae:**  my username’s the same

 **alljae.everyjae:**   okayimgoingtobednowbye

 

 **YoungK:**   Wow

 **YoungK:**   I can’t believe you just did that

 **YoungK:**   This is the equivalent of leaving your number in somebody’s textbook in highschool

 **YoungK:**   Are you really not going to answer me now??

 **YoungK:**   Omg I’ve actually gotta go now

 **YoungK:**   You’re horrible and I don’t actually have line???

 

* * *

 

 

[19:32]

 **Jae:**   I dunno

 **Jae:**   it’s complicated

 **Jae:**   I’ve been in love before

 **Jae:**   but only ever the one time and it was so painfully onesided

 **Jae:**   honestly I don’t think I’d be able to recognize it if someone were in love with me

 

 **Younghyun:**   What do you mean?

 **Younghyun:**   We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to though

 

 **Jae:**   okay

 **Jae:**   OKAY

 **Jae:**   this is super embarrassing for me to admit

 **Jae:**   honestly

 **Jae:**   I’ve only ever told Wonpil about this and even then I didn’t tell him everything because I was just so ashamed

 **Jae:**   I was 18 and she was a couple years older

 **Jae:**   like 22 or something like that

 **Jae:**   we met at this volunteer music daycamp thing for kids

 **Jae:**   and it was like

 **Jae:**   I don’t even know how to explain it but the moment I met her I knew all I wanted was for her to look my way and notice me

**Younghyun:**   Ahhh

 **Younghyun:**   That’s something I can relate to

 

 **Jae:**   it was like she could see right through me

 **Jae:**   she always knew exactly what to say to make me laugh

 **Jae:**   and she made me feel like I was the most important person in the world to her

 **Jae:**   every time we talked it was like everything else in the world just disappeared

 **Jae:**   even if we were in a group of people she always focused most of her attention on me

 **Jae:**   and at 18 just fresh out of high school moving to korea and being away from all of my family and the familiarity of home she felt like something steady

 **Jae:**   I honestly thought it was going so well

 **Jae:**   we’d talk every single day pretty much nonstop

 **Jae:**   I mean we texted a LOT

 **Jae:**   and she’d call me and we’d talk on the phone

 **Jae:**   every time I got homesick if I called she’d pick up

 **Jae:**   and she’d leave me these voicemails that just made me smile for hours

**Younghyun:**   Honestly, that doesn’t sound all that one-sided to me

 

 **Jae:**   yeah. I guess

 **Jae:**   but then she’d also disappear for months

 **Jae:**   just randomly drop off the face of the earth

 **Jae:**   I’d text and I wouldn’t get an answer

 **Jae:**   I’d call and it’d go straight to voicemail

 **Jae:**   and I thought maybe I’d done something wrong but I didn’t apologize or anything because I didn’t even know what I would be apologizing for??

 **Jae:**   I thought maybe she just got bored of me

 **Jae:**   but then she’d be back and when I asked what happened she’d never really give me an answer and I’d just go with it

 **Jae:**   because I thought I was in love you know?

 **Jae:**   and I really thought she loved me

 **Jae:**   and everything would go back to the way it was before and I was literally so happy just to see her again that I never really wanted to bring it up because it felt like I would break the spell

 

 **Younghyun:**   Damn

 **Younghyun:**   I’m so sorry, Jae, that really sucks

 

 **Jae:**   yeah

 **Jae:**   but the really pathetic part is coming up

 **Jae:**   and it was a really long time ago

 **Jae:**   I mean I’m 29

 **Jae:**   I haven’t spoken to her in over 5 years but it’s still kind of awkward to talk about

 

 **Younghyun:**   What I said before still stands, you don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to

 

 **Jae:** nonono

 **Jae:**   I want to tell you

 **Jae:**   I just

 **Jae:**   I don’t know

 **Jae:**   part of me feels like I still need to lock it all away and never think about it again but I want to be honest with you

 **Jae:**   we’ve been talking for like what

 **Jae:**   4 or 5 months now?

 **Jae:**   and even though we’ve never met face to face I feel like we’ve really gotten to know each other in a really real way, ya feel?

 

 **Younghyun:**   Totally, dude

 **Younghyun:**   I feel like we’ve just fallen into this really naturally, to be honest

 **Younghyun:**   Like we knew each other for years, but ended up moving away, but we’re still tight?

 

 **Jae:**   exactly!

 **Jae:**   but yeah I’ll stop stalling

 **Jae:**   the pathetic bit

 **Jae:**   I didn’t just let her do it once or twice but this was an ongoing sort of occurrence through the course our relationship

 **Jae:**   if you could even really call it that

 **Jae:**   but what I’m trying to say is that I let her string me along for 6 years and it was really bad

 

 **Younghyun:**   Jesus…

 **Younghyun:**   Jae…

 

 **Jae:**   I know

 **Jae:**   I tried dating other people

 **Jae:**   really liked some of them too

 **Jae:**   but it wasn’t the same they weren’t her

 **Jae:** there was a lot of crying and listening to bon iver involved

 **Jae:**   and it got to this point where I didn’t even know if I really wanted her anymore but whenever she came back I felt like I couldn’t say no

 **Jae:**   it was really pathetic

 **Jae:**   I was really pathetic

 

 **Younghyun:** Okay don’t talk about yourself like that because you are NOT pathetic

 **Younghyun:**   You were emotionally vulnerable with her in a way that you’d never been with anyone else before. She made you promise after promise about what she wanted from your relationship then never followed through.

 **Younghyun:**   Regardless of if you were ‘willing’ or not, she saw the level of dependency that you had in her and she took advantage of that.

 **Younghyun:**   Jesus, Jae, you weren’t even LEGAL at the time.

 

 **Jae:**   dude

 **Jae:**   I was legal for almost an entire year in the us at that point

 **Jae:**   I was an adult

 **Jae:**   it really wasn’t like that

 

 **Younghyun:**   Yeah, but she you can’t deny that she took advantage of your feelings for her?

 **Younghyun:**   You wouldn’t let me talk about myself that way and you know it

 **Younghyun:**   You’re not pathetic, Jae, you’re one of the strongest people I know

 **Younghyun:**   I know you said you can be closed off with people sometimes, but I can tell it’s because you feel so deeply for the people you do care about

 **Younghyun:**   LITERALLY you ordered me chicken noodle soup online and sent it over to my house a couple months ago when I told you I had the stomach flu

 **Younghyun:**   Once you videocalled me, drunk out of your mind, BAWLING YOUR EYES OUT, because Dowoon had started hiccupping in his sleep and you were convinced that he was dying

 **Younghyun:**   You’ll complain about it, but every single time you can tell Sungjin’s just too worn out from having to deal with people all day, you’ll let him hid out in the back and just take care of the whole damn store by yourself

 

 **Jae:**  well I mean

 **Jae:**   it’s my store too I’ve gotta take some responsibility

 

 **Younghyun:**   THAT’S ANOTHER THING

 **Younghyun:**   YOU’VE GOT A WHOLE DAMN STORE

 **Younghyun:**   YOU AND YOUR FRIEND OPENED UP A MUSIC STORE TOGETHER WHEN YOU WERE 25 AND SOMEHOW MANAGED TO KEEP THE THING AFLOAT AND YOU’RE NOT BANKRUPT OR DROWNING IN DEBT

 

 **Jae:**   dude I am totally in debt

 

 **Younghyun:**   Yeah, but you’re like 2 years off from paying it all off already

 **Younghyun:**   You save like a beast

 **Younghyun:**   I don’t think I’ve EVER seen anyone coupon the way you do, it’s terrifying

 

 **Jae:**   it’s Sungjin’s influence

 **Jae:**   guy’s the suburban dad that I can only aspire to one day be

 

 **Younghyun:**   Shut the hell up and let me compliment you

 **Younghyun:**   You’re funny, you’re caring, you’re smart, you’re perceptive, and you’re hot as hell

 **Younghyun:**   YOU RUN A FREE MUSIC CLASS EVERY TWO WEEKS OUT OF YOUR STORE WITH YOUR FRIENDS FOR KIDS WHO WANT TO LEARN AND YOU LEND OUT INSTRUMENTS FOR THEM TO PLAY DURING LESSIONS

 **Younghyun:**   Don’t let that one thing define you

 **Younghyun:**   Yeah, she got the better of you, but everyone has their soft spots and she found yours and dug in

 **Younghyun:**   That’s on her, not on you

 

 **Jae:**   damn

 **Jae:**   you’ve legit got me emotional

 **Jae:**   honestly I’m over it now

 **Jae:**   but I really appreciate how much you’re willing to defend me from myself lol

 **Jae:**   also

 **Jae:**   did you call me hot??

 

 **Younghyun:**   Shut the fuck up, I’m not inflating your ego anymore today

 **Younghyun:**   You know you’re good looking, you don’t need me to confirm it

 

 **Jae:**   lmao flattery never hurt anyone

 

 **Younghyun:**   Flattering you hurts me

 

 **Jae:**   excuse

 **Jae:**   rude

 **Jae:**   seriously though

 **Jae:**   thanks Brian

 

 **Younghyun:**   Of course, what are friends for

 

 **Jae:**   that’s gay

 

 **Younghyun:**   Bitch please

 **Younghyun:**   You KNOW I’m bi

 

 **Jae:**   I know it still cracks me up

 **Jae:**   what are the chances that two bi Korean dudes meet up on some English online forum about skateboarding, get into a fight, somehow make up, and end up being really good friends

**Younghyun:**   Life's weird, man

 

 **Jae:**   yo you know what I just realized

 **Jae:**   Brian

 **Jae:**   Bi-ran

 **Jae:**   Bi-rian

 **Jae:**   damn I just REALLY want to make this work now

 

 **Younghyun:**   I’m blocking you

 

 **Jae:**   but who will send you memes

 

 **Younghyun:**   Why the hell would I need you, that’s what Reddit’s for???

 

 **Jae:**   okay

 **Jae:**   WOW

 **Jae:**   fine

 **Jae:**   who will serenade you with girlgroup songs??

 

 **Younghyun:**   Terry.

 

 **Jae:**   WOW

 **Jae:**   B L O C K E D

 

* * *

 

“Yeah, I don’t know, man.” Jae pushed his hair off his forehead with a frown. “I wanna dye it again, but premature balding is such a fear.

 

“Honestly, I think it would look good either way.” Brian shrugged on the screen, the video lagging slightly. “Your skin tone would suit just about anything.”

 

“Ugh, you’re no help.” Jae frowned at the screen. “How is it that your hair always looks so good?” Brian had recently dyed it a deep plum and Jae couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed at how good it actually looked. “You should look like Barney or a Tumblr reject, but somehow you make it look amazing.”

 

“Well, I don’t dye my hair at home by myself for one thing.” Brian said with a grin, ruffling his hair a little. “Really, yours always looks good too. I honestly miss the blond a little though.”

 

“So are you trying to tell me that I should go back to the whole Chicken Little look?”

 

Brian rolled his eyes and he looked exasperated that Jae couldn’t help grinning. “I keep telling you, no one would have made the connection if you hadn’t put that red toque one the way that you did!”

 

“I still can’t get over the fact that you call it a toque.”

 

“Get over it, an entire country of people call them toques.” Brian was starting to grin now, feeling the two of them fall into familiar banter. “And don’t you dare start in on the ‘Toronto’ thing again.”

 

“There’s two ‘T’s!! TWO and you don’t say either of them!”

 

“You can say them if you want, but then you’re saying it wrong.” Brian insisted, “I swear to god, no one who lives here says ‘Toronto’ like that. It just always ends up being ‘churrono’.”

 

Jae watched his own expression shift into one of disbelief. “There is NO WAY anyone says it like that. It’s like it gets more slurred every single time I hear you say it.”

 

“Yeah, no, I’m not taking language lessons from Mr. ‘my Korean vocabulary is limited to under 2,000 words including curses’.”

 

“HEY! You take that back! My Korean has gotten way better over the years!” Jae was actively pouting now, but whatever. “You literally just told me last week that my accent’s almost non-existent.”

 

“Yeah, I lied.”

 

“I’m hanging up.”

 

“No you aren’t.” Brian looked way too smug for someone who was wearing a Gudetama shirt. “We missed out on Wednesday’s hang out because _somebody_ was too hungover to wake up on time even though I told _someone_ to remember to hydrate and that I would be okay with calling a different time if _someone_ wanted to just let loose since Sungjin said he’d work the day with Dowoon instead because they wanted to have some quality time.”

 

Jae groaned and let his head fall onto the keyboard. “Come on, Bri, don’t be like this.”

 

“But _someone_ insisted that they’d be totally fine waking up at 9 am, so I waited up until 1 am for _somebody_ to call because I thought you’d probably be sad and feel guilty if I wasn’t there when you got up.”

 

“Congratulations, I feel guilty, you’ve won.” Jae looked up at the screen. Brian was laying down sideways now, hair half falling in his face. “I do really feel bad about that.”

 

Brian gave what must have been a shrug, judging by how the screen shook. “Don’t. You know I don’t mean it and I don’t mind. It isn’t like I don’t stay up that late on my own anyway. I just wanted to give you a hard time.”

 

“Oh, don’t forget to plug in your phone before bed.” Brian’s eyes were half-closed and he looked like he was already halfway to dreamland. “You always get grumpy when you don’t get to listen to play with your phone on the bus.”

 

“Don’t talk to me about being grump in the morning, Park Jaehyung.” Brian laughed, nose scrunching. “You’re like a hell-beast before coffee.”

 

“Hey, I’m a saint. I’ve got the patience to deal with you at 6 am.”

 

Something in Brian’s face softened. “Yeah, you are pretty great. I don’t think I say it enough, but I really do appreciate that you’re willing to go out of your way to accommodate me.”

 

“You do the exact same thing for me.” Jae could feel his ears flush and was all of a sudden really grateful for the shitty quality of the videocall. “I know how you feel about sleeping.”

 

“I really do love sleeping.” Brian said seriously, “Maybe I should just cancel tomorrow’s class. I don’t need a job. Who needs a job? Not me.”

 

Jae opened his mouth to reply when he was startled by the sound of his guitar case slamming into the ground. He spun around in his computer chair and was shocked to see Wonpil’s equally surprised face staring back at him.

 

“WONPIL, what the actual fuck!” Jae knew he was screaming, and in English, but he really felt that occasion called for it.

 

“SORRY HYUNG I’M LEAVING NOW, SUNGJIN-HYUNG WANTED ME TO SEE IF YOU WANTED TO COME OVER FOR A BEER OR SOMETHING BUT I CAN SEE THAT YOU’RE BUSY.” Wonpil was yelling too, and scrambling away from Jae’s reaching hands. “SO SORRY I DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING I’LL TALK TO YOU TOMORROW BYE.”

 

Jae chased him out of his bedroom but by the time he’d managed to untangle himself from a pair of jeans he’d haphazardly tossed on the floor earlier that evening, Wonpil had already sprinted out the door. He had to hand it to him, the little snake had a really strong sense of self-preservation. Jae wasn’t even sure Wonpil had stopped to put his shoes on.

 

“Jae? Jae?! What’s happening? Jae!” Brian’s voice was faint but getting progressively more frantic. “Are you okay? What was that? What’s going on?”

 

“Sorry!” Jae rushed back into his room, heart still pounding. “Sorry, that was Wonpil. He’s got a house key and never knocks.”

 

Brian still looked concerned, all traces of sleep banished. “I don’t understand? Why did he run away like that?”

 

“Uhhh,” Jae could feel himself rapidly blinking and fought to keep his expression straight. “So, it might be that my friends know about you, but they sort of don’t know much about you?”

 

“What?” Brian just looked even more confused.

 

“I mean, they know I’ve been talking to a guy named Brian from Toronto and that we’re really close and we call all the time, but I haven’t really told them much more than that.” Jae scratched the back of his head. “So they’re always trying to pry and figure things out about you, but last time Pillie tried to go through my phone, I legitimately got angry so I think he’s still sort of running on residual fear.”

 

“Oh.” Now he just looked hurt. “Can I ask why?”

 

Jae could feel himself getting redder by the second. “It’s hard to explain.”

 

“Please try.”

 

Oh boy, he was getting all passive-aggressively Canadian. Damage control.

 

“You’re special.” He blurted out, ears burning. “What we have is special and I don’t want to have to explain or share it with anyone else.”

 

“Oh.” Now Brian looked embarrassed too. “Really?”

 

“Yeah, really.” Jae’s heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest. “What we’ve got is literally like nothing I’ve ever had before. I love spending time with you and I love how our conversations get super weird when we’re both sleep-deprived and exhausted, but no one’s willing to hang up first.”

 

He took a deep breath. “I love when you’re lesson planning, or marking homework and completely forget that we’re in a videocall and end up singing to yourself and getting all of the lyrics wrong. I love when you scrunch up your nose. I love when you get mad at me for not drinking enough water or falling asleep with the aircon on because it makes me feel like you care about me just as much as I care about you.”

 

“Jae…”

 

“Wait, just let me finish.” Jae probably looked frantic, but he couldn’t stop staring at Brian’s face in his computer monitor. “I know it’s stupid because we haven’t even known each other a year, we met on fucking _Reddit_ , and I’ve never met you in person, but I think I’m pretty sure I’m sort of in love with you.”

 

“Oh.” Brian’s eyes were huge.

 

“Yeah.” His mouth was all of a sudden really dry. “So, that’s a thing. I want to be the bigger person and say that it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way, but honestly, I’d be pretty devastated.”

 

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m, how did you say it?” Brian was smiling now, nose scrunching up and eyes creasing in the corners. “Sort of in love with you too.”

 

“Oh.” His cheeks hurt from smiling, but he couldn’t make himself stop. “Good.”

 

“Yeah, good.” Brian was full out laughing now. “Man, this makes my surprise even better.”

 

“Surprise?” Jae couldn’t help wincing a little bit. “Uh, you know how I feel about surprises.”

 

“I’m pretty sure you’ll like this one.” Brian was reaching for something off-screen. “I was going to preface this with a whole ‘no pressure’ sort of speech, but if you don’t at least come pick me up after that whole confession you just gave me I’m gonna be mad.”

 

“Wait, what?” Jae squinted at the piece of paper Brian was holding up to his phone. “You’re holding it too close, I literally can’t see anything.”

 

“Oh my,” The paper was abruptly pulled away, Brian coming back into focus. “It’s a plane ticket, you doofus. I’m coming to Korea.”

 

“Wait, what?”

 

“Are you stuck on a loop? I’m coming to Korea. To Seoul.”

 

“Oh my god.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“When?”

 

“In May. My plane lands on the 13th at 4 pm.”

 

“What?”

 

Brian looked a little annoyed now. “Back to the one word questions? I’m actually going to hang up if you keep on doing this.”

 

“No, don’t!” Jae shook his head so hard he felt like his glasses were going to fly off. “I’m sorry, I’m just really surprised. That’s like,” He glanced at the calendar on his desktop. “Holy shit, that’s like less than two weeks away!”

 

“Yeah.” Brian looked a little sheepish now. “I know it’s a little short notice, but I was really hoping we could spend some time together. I’m coming for two weeks, so I can totally work around your schedule, I don’t want you to have to feel like you need to rearrange your life around me…”

 

“No! I want to spend time together!” He was already mentally planning how he was going to convince Sungjin to let him play hooky as much as humanly possible. Maybe if he cried… “Where are you staying? You should stay with me.”

 

The offer was completely unexpected for the both of them, and Jae could see the shock on Brian’s face. “Seriously?”

 

“Yeah, seriously.” The more he thought about it the better the idea seemed. “There’s room and traveling’s expensive enough as it is. Save some money, dude.”

 

“Oh. So this is for solely economic purposes?” Brian grinned. “You’re not going to try something in the middle of the night, are you?”

 

“Please,” Jae scoffed, “if anyone needs to be worried about their virtue, it’s me.”

 

They smiled comfortably at one another for a moment. “Seriously though, Jae, are you sure?”

 

“Dude, if I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have offered.”

 

“Well… In that case, sure, I’d love to.” Brian’s smile turned a little shy, one hand coming up to cover his mouth while he yawned. “Thank you.”

 

“No problem.” Jae let his expression turn fond. “Go to sleep, you look half-dead.”

 

“I’m not sleepy.” Brian snuggled deeper into his pillow. “I can keep talking.”

 

“Sure you can, did you plug in your phone yet?”

 

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, dad.”

 

“Woah, pulling out the daddy-kink already.”

 

“Shut up.” He could hear the sound of Brian shuffling around on his bed as he tried to prop his phone up to face him. “Ugh, I give up, I’m just gonna turn the video off.” The screen went dark, but the sound stayed connected. “Talk to me. Tell me about your day.”

 

_Holy shit, we’re so domestic already._

“I don’t really have much to tell you about.” Jae admitted, “It was pretty normal, except Wonpil was testing out this new keyboard we got, it’s a Prophet X. It's beautiful, 5-octaves, so freaking fancy, and holy crap is the thing ever expensive, but it sounds amazing. Anyway, we’re all sort of fawning over the thing and Wonpil’s playing around on it when all of a sudden the whole damn stand just drops. I want to make it clear that I did _not_ set this thing up, it was Dowoon, so this was in no way my fault, but someone didn’t lock the stand in place or something because Wonpil’s in the middle of some sort of jazzed up version of a Coldplay song when the thing just drops a foot.”

 

Jae laughed out loud. “I swear to god, I’ve _never_ seen Dowoon move so fast before. He straight up dove for the thing. It probably would have crushed him, but dude was 100 percent willing to sacrifice, I thought I was going to cry, I was laughing so hard. Obviously the stand caught it and it didn’t actually fall onto the floor, but the look on Pil’s face was so priceless, I wish you could have seen it.”

 

Jae stopped talking, but he’s pretty sure that Brian’s already fallen asleep. The man can fall asleep literally anywhere. They’ve had phone conversations where Brian’s going somewhere on the bus when all of a sudden, he just stops talking and Jae just knows he’s out like a light on public transit somewhere.

 

“Yo, Brian?” The other end of the line stays quiet. “You suck, I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay awake. You must be awful on road-trips.”

 

Jae hangs up the call and leans back in his chair.

 

Brian’s coming. To Korea. To Seoul. To stay in his apartment. In two weeks. For two weeks.

 

He looked around his room.

 

“Holy shit.” Jae said to himself aloud. “I’ve gotta clean.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually had a whole giant plan about how this would be from everyone else's perspective and everyone would watch Brian and Jae fall in love and that 100 percent just didn't happen.
> 
> Sorry to anyone who liked the original FMA, but Brotherhood was objectively better fight me. The Nina-meme thing is based off of an ongoing, real life experience. I still don't know if I was flattered by my friend's attention and touched that they'd put so much time and effort into something for me, or offended that they'd do something so awful.
> 
> I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but I don't have anything against relationships with an age gap, the reason I had Brian address age issue at all is because I wanted to emphasize the fact that Unknown-Girl was fully aware of what she was doing. She knew there was a power imbalance and she used it to her advantage.
> 
> I couldn't remember what kind of keyboard Wonpil used, so I just picked the most expensive one that my favourite local music store carried. It was over $5,000.00 CND. I don't know how many won that is but just thinking about dropping something like that makes me sweat.
> 
> Brian falling asleep everywhere is such a Big Mood.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to post this chapter in comparison to the others. Hope you enjoy!

Everyone liked to tease Sungjin about being the ‘dad-friend’ but Wonpil knew he took a certain amount of pride in it. Sungjin liked being the one who their friends went to for advice and he liked being the type of person who others saw as a source of protection and comfort. Sungjin’s desire to care for the people around him was one of Wonpil’s favourite things about him, but it really did have its downsides.

 

“Woah.” Wonpil sat next to Dowoon on the couch. “How long has he been at it?”

 

Dowoon shrugged, stealing a sip of his coffee. “No idea. I woke up around 9:00 and he was already halfway through your shoes, so I’m assuming maybe two hours total?”

 

“Geeze.”

 

Sungjin was sitting on the step-stool from the kitchen, hunched over a pair of loafers, shoe-brush in hand. To his right sat about 20 pairs of shoes, all gleaming, neatly paired, and blocking the door of their apartment. He was still wearing his pajamas and Wonpil could see a smear of polish on the back of one of his arms. Sungjin’s was wearing an obnoxiously coloured pair of orange headphones and had his back to the living room.

 

“Wait, why do none of the shoes have laces?” Dowoon sighed and shook his head without answering. “Dear god, is he cleaning the laces too?”

 

“They’re all drying on the balcony.” Dowoon confirmed. “He even scrubbed the stitching on your Docs. They look really great.”

 

“Do you ever think it’s strange that we’re a trio of poly, gay men but somehow the weirdest thing about us still manages to be Sungjin’s stress-shoe cleaning habit?”

 

“I don’t know if I’d say _that’s_ the weirdest thing about us, but I did see him eyeing the sneakers a couple minutes ago, so if we’re gonna interrupt, it better be soon.”

 

“Who’s it gonna be this time?”

 

The two stared at one another for a moment. Neither of them moved.

 

“Well,” Wonpil began slowly, “You did it last time, so I guess it’d only be fair…”

 

“Oh, thank god.” Dowoon fell back into the couch. “You’re better at this sort of thing anyway.”

 

Wonpil took a fortifying gulp of his coffee before handing his mug to Dowoon. “Wish me luck.”

 

“Love you, I’m right behind you.”

 

Sungjin hadn’t made any indication that he knew Wonpil was there even as he sat down on the floor next to him. Wonpil didn’t say anything, but he did lean against Sungjin’s knee.

 

“What?” His voice was clipped and he didn’t take off the headphones or pause in his brushing. “Do you need something?”

 

“Well, yeah.” Wonpil looked up at Sungjin seriously, waiting for eye contact before he continued. “You know how I feel about waking up alone. I really thought that having two boyfriends would have solved that problem, so imagine my surprise when I rolled over to have a cuddle this morning and the bed’s totally empty.”

 

Sungjin didn’t respond, but he took off the headphones.

 

“Are you still worried about Jae-hyung?”

 

“Of course I’m worried!” Sungjin put down the shoe and Wonpil laced their fingers together. “He’s letting a stranger he met on the internet live in his apartment for two weeks. We’ve never talked to him before, we don’t know his full name, we don’t even know what he looks like!”

 

“That’s why we’re going with him when he goes to pick Brian up tomorrow.” He rubbed his thumb across the back of Sungjin’s hand. “We know his name’s Brian, we know he’s from Toronto, we know he’s a music teacher, we know he’s blond, and we know he makes Jae-hyung deliriously happy.”

 

Sungjin sighed. “I know Jae-hyung’s a grown man, but I can’t help feeling a little worried.” Wonpil gave the shoes around them a pointed look. “Okay, really worried.”

 

“I know, but you’re going to give yourself grey hair.” Dowoon passed Sungjin the mug of coffee. “You know how Jae-hyung is. He’s goofy, but he doesn’t tend to be impulsive. I’m sure he’s thought this through.”

 

Wonpil thought about how devastating Jae’s first love had been for him. He and Jae had still been roommates at the time and there’d been more than one night where Wonpil had woken up to Jae sniffling in the bed next to his.

 

One night Wonpil had woken up to Jae full on sobbing into his pillow, lips red from where he’d bitten himself to keep quiet. Wonpil crawled into the bed next to Jae and wrapped his arms around the taller boy’s shoulders, pulling his head to his chest. Neither of them spoke a word, but when Wonpil woke up in the morning, Jae was still curled up against him in bed.

 

“You wanna talk about it?” His voice was barely a whisper. “Is she ignoring your calls again?”

 

Jae nodded against his chest. “I’m pretty sure it’s really over this time.”

 

“I hope so. I hate seeing you like this.”

 

“I know.” Jae paused, “I threw the ring away.”

 

Wonpil felt his eyes widen. “Wait, what? When?”

 

She’d given Jae that ring the first Christmas they’d been together and Jae almost never took it off. It was too big and always turned Jae’s thumb green, but Jae treasured it.

 

“I, uh, threw it into the river when I was coming home from work yesterday.” Jae sounded embarrassed and Wonpil gave in to the urge to giggle. “Listen, I never said I wasn’t dramatic and extra as hell, but I knew if I didn’t do something dramatic and extra as hell, I’d go back for it.”

 

It was true. Wonpil had seen Jae fish the ring out of a public garbage can after it had slipped off before.

 

“So it’s really over?” Wonpil asked, carding his fingers through Jae’s hair.

 

Jae shrugged. “It’s over for me.”

 

There’d been a couple times in the following weeks where Wonpil had found himself curled up next to Jae when he woke up in the morning, but he didn’t mind. Jae was generally such a closed off person, the fact that he was allowing Wonpil to see him so vulnerable made Wonpil feel special. But it also made him fiercely protective of his best friend.

 

“Even if this Brian person ends up being bad news, Jae-hyung still has us.” Wonpil said confidently, “Sunjin-hyung owns a van and Dowoonie’s muscles are huge, I’m sure we could get rid of a body if we really needed to. People go missing on vacations all the time.”

 

“Pillie,” Sungjin held out a hand to help Wonpil off the floor. “Sometimes, you really scare me.”

 

“That’s rude!” He let Sungjin pull him up with a pout. “I’m adorable, and you know it.”

 

“Yeah, but you’re adorable in the same way badgers ar..” Dowoon pointed out. “Like, I really want to cuddle you, but your claws are huge and I feel like you would happily rip my entire face off if I crossed you.”

 

“No more pouting.” Sungjin pinched Wonpil’s nose. “We already said you were cute.”

 

“Excuse me?” Wonpil gestured to the shoes still littering the ground. “You can’t say anything about pouting.”

 

“I wasn’t pouting, I was brooding! It’s different.”

 

“I’m with Pillie-hyung on this one.” Dowoon patted Sungjin on the shoulder. “If you have to argue that you weren’t pouting, you were probably pouting.”

 

The three of them bickered all the way to the kitchen, leaving all the shoes scattered around their doorway. Wonpil was sure things would just work themselves out. They always did.

 

Wonpil was sitting in the backseat of Sungjin’s van with Dowoon, the clock on the dashboard is blinking a cheery red 4:16 back at him, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to work itself out.

 

He knew it was hypocritical considering he’d just been giving his boyfriend trouble for it earlier in the day, but he was panicking. Holy shit, was he ever panicking.

 

“How are we even going to communicate with him?” Wonpil was wringing his hands and resisting the urge to bite his nails. “Sungjinnie-hyung’s English is pretty good, but the only things I know how to say are ‘did you eat?’ and ‘of course!’ and that’s not enough to establish any sort of a friendship!”

 

“I’m sure Jae-hyung will translate anything that we can’t understand.” Dowoon took Wonpil’s hands in his own. “Hyung, you need to relax. You’re the one who told us to keep a positive attitude about this.”

 

“I know, but I was wrong.” Wonpil knew he looked absolutely insane, but he couldn’t help it. “Dowoonie, you’re adorable, that transcends any type of language barrier. I’m only cute in Korean! Aegyo doesn’t translate well! Foreigners don’t like aegyo! Jae-hyung doesn’t even like aegyo! All I have is my aegyo!”

 

“Pillie-Pillie, please stop.” Sungjin sounded exhausted. “Your panic is spreading and at least 2/3 of us need to be calm when Jae-hyung brings this guy into the car. Anxiety is pretty universal, and I feel like this will be uncomfortable enough as it is.”

 

“He’s got purple hair, right?” Dowoon asked, eyes scanning the crowd outside. “At least he’ll be easy to spot. How many purple-haired, foreigners do you think are running around the airport?”

 

Wonpil put his head against Dowoon’s shoulder. “Dowoonie, hold me.”

 

Before Dowoon was able to respond, the door of the van opened and a man climbed inside.

 

His hair was blond, and he had a distinctly vulpine look to him. He was wearing a loose white button-up, comfortable looking tan trousers, and casual canvas shoes.

 

“Hi,” His eyes crinkled with his smile, “I’m Younghyun, I’ve heard so much about you guys.”

 

Sungjin had turned in his seat, mouth opening and closing as if he were getting ready to speak, but couldn’t quite find the words.

 

Dowoon was squeezing the life out of Wonpil’s left arm and glancing back and forth between the two older men in the car for guidance.

 

Wonpil just stared.

 

“Hello?” Younghyun waved awkwardly. “You are Jae-hyung’s friends, right? Oh god, am I in the wrong car?!”

 

“You’re not in the wrong car,” Jae crawled into the van. “they’re just being weird. Shove over, all your junk wouldn’t fit in the trunk.” He chuckled to himself. “Junk in the trunk.”

 

“It’s not junk!” Younghyun argued, “You wouldn’t tell me what we were going to be doing, so I had to be prepared!”

 

“Wait,” Sungjin finally interrupts, “what’s going on? Who is this? Where’s Brian?”

 

Younghyun immediately scowls at Jae. “You told me they knew!”

 

“They do know!” Jae held up his hands in surrender. “Obviously they knew, or else they wouldn’t be here!”

 

“Well, obviously you didn’t explain very well.” Younghyun rolled his eyes at Jae before turning his attention to Sungjin. “I’m really sorry, I thought Jae-hyung would have told you, I’m Brian.”

 

The van was quiet for a long moment.

 

“Wait, what?” Wonpil hadn’t even realized he’d spoken until everyone’s attention spun to him. “This is Brain?”

 

“Yeah,” Jae gave him an odd look. “This is Brian.”

 

“You told us he had purple hair!” Wonpil said accusingly, “You told us he was Canadian!”

 

“Sorry, the purple washed out really fast and I ended up blond again.” Younghyun (Brian???) ran a hand through his hair ruefully.

 

“And he is Canadian.” Jae added, “He’s from Toronto, Canada.”

 

“I think,” Sungjin said slowly, “We just expected him to look...”

 

“Whiter?” Dowoon finished awkwardly. “No offence, but Jae-hyung told us literally nothing about you. We sort of just assumed…”

 

Brian just stared at Jae, distinctly unimpressed.

 

“Well,” Sungjin spun back around in his seat. “This is sufficiently awkward, I’m just gonna drive.”

 

“Wait,” Wonpil’s eyes narrowed. “If you’re Canadian, how come you speak Korean?”

 

“Oh my god, Pillie-hyung,” Dowoon shook his arm. “You can’t just ask people why they speak Korean!”

 

“Did he just sort of quote Mean Girls?” Brian asked Jae.

 

Jae sighed, putting his forehead against Brian’s shoulder. “I should have just called for a cab.”

 

Seoul should have felt like home, but something about it made Brian feel like he was floating in the sea without a life-vest. He’d had to pull out the formalities that he’d stashed away in Canada and, although Toronto was a big city, Seoul was so crowded Brian felt like he couldn’t move two feet without running into someone. He hadn’t been back in ten years and it really showed.

 

Jae’s presence in the midst of it all was like feeling the sand in his toes when he was sure he wouldn’t be able to swim anymore. It should have been awkward, they’d never even met face to face before, but somehow it felt like Brian had just been on vacation and the two were meeting up again after a couple weeks apart.

 

Jae’s apartment was cleaner than Brian had though it would be, he seemed more like an organized-chaos sort of guy, and there was a pillow and a blanket lay neatly on the pullout couch. Brian touched the pillow and tried not to feel too disappointed.

 

“So, that’s actually for me.”

 

“Wait, what?” Brian spun around to look at Jae. “No way, man. I couldn’t kick you out of your own bed.”

 

“I really don’t want to pressure you or anything like that.” He looked about as nervous as Brian felt. “We could just sleep in the bed together, it’s big enough, but I thought I’d give you an option.”

 

“Jae, we’ve had one round of half awkward, half super successful phone sex and now I’m going to be staying in your house for the next two weeks.” He wrapped a tentative hand around Jae’s wrist. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I fully intend to take advantage of the time we’ll have together.”

 

“Oh.” Jae’s eyes widened. “OH.”

 

“Is that okay?”

 

“Yes, that’s okay!”

 

“Okay, cool.”

 

Jae ended up calling his friends and telling them that he and Brian weren’t coming to dinner after all. They cancelled brunch the next day as well.

 

Two weeks seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Brian was almost a little bit scared at how well he seemed to slide into Jae’s life.

 

He spent a lot of time with Jae’s friends at the music store, and found himself falling into an easy sort of comradery with them and (much to Jae’s horror) ended up exchanging contact information and the promise to keep in touch. Brian was a little bit surprised he didn’t get some type of a ‘shovel talk’ considering how protective Wonpil in particular seemed to be, but when he brought it up with Jae, the older man just shrugged.

 

“Pil’s weird as hell, but he’s a really good judge of character. He’s always said that he can tell love from a lie with a glance.”

 

“Is that his wording?” Brian’s eyes were half closed already as Jae ran his fingers through his hair. “It sounds pretty. Like something out of a song.”

 

They lay silently in bed for what felt like ages. Jae had a bright red spot where his neck met his shoulder from where Brian had ‘accidently’ bit him earlier and he couldn’t help feeling a sort of smug satisfaction from it. He wasn’t wearing his glasses and Brian could see a crease on his cheek from his pillow. It was honestly too hot to be comfortable, the two of them pressed up against each other the way that they were, but neither of them seemed inclined to move.

 

“So, you leave tomorrow.” The words hung in the air like a sword. “What do you wanna spend the day doing? We could go down to the river? Do you want to do touristy junk, or go more local?”

 

Jae’s hair was a truly impressive mess. The early sunlight streamed through the window and lit it up like a candle flame and Brian all of a sudden couldn’t swallow past the lump in this throat.

 

“Let’s not do anything.” He managed, his voice only wavering a little. “Let’s just stay in bed all day. I just want to spend as much time with you as I can.”

 

“Hey, hey, don’t do that.” Jae cupped Brain’s face in his hand. “It sucks, but we’ll manage.”

 

“I’m just going to miss you so much.” Brian couldn’t help the tears gathering in his eyes. “I’m going to miss waking up with you in the bed, being able to talk to you whenever without having to calculate if you’re even going to be awake. I’m going to miss being able to tell you ‘I love you’ then having you make some joke about it being gay before I kiss you senseless. I’m going to miss having someone scratch the spots on my back I can’t reach-”

 

“Bro, you literally got your legs over my shoulders while we were face to face yesterday.”

 

“I can’t believe you called me ‘bro’ while we were having a moment.” Brian knew Jae had only said it to make him smile and unfortunately it had worked. “I’m trying to make a lasting, romantic impression before I leave.”

 

“Brian, I can literally count the teeth marks you left on my shoulder in the mirror. I’d say you left an impression.”

 

Brian gave him a shove and when Jae retaliated, their peaceful morning cuddle dissolved into a wrestling match. They were both grinning wildly by the time Brian had managed to pin Jae to the mattress.

 

“Say ‘uncle’.”

 

“Dude, that’s a super weird and super specific kink.” Jae’s expression was serious, but Brian could see his lip twitching. “I’m only comforted by the fact that I know you’re an only child.”

 

“Shut up.” Brian pressed a hand over Jae’s mouth before he could respond with a predictable ‘make me’. “I still can’t believe I fell in love with the guy who got way too angry about longboards verse skateboards over the internet.”

 

Jae gave Brian’s palm a kiss before peeling his hand away from his mouth. “Next time, I’ll come to you. We can hold hands and make out at the park like teenagers or something.”

 

“I should have known you’d be an exhibitionist.” Brian flopped down next to Jae. “I hope you understand the sacrifices I make for you, Park Jaehyung. You can’t imagine how expensive data is in Canada.”

 

“Oh, I can imagine,” Jae grinned and curled closer to Brian. They were almost nose to nose, chest to chest. “I hear about it all the time from my boyfriend.”

 

“I’m sure you’ll be hearing even more about it soon.” He closed his eyes and wrapped an arm around Jae. “Talk to me. Tell me something. Anything.” Brian's voice cracked on the last word and he desperately hoped that Jae would latch onto that make a joke.

 

“I’m in love with you.”

 

"Not 'sort of in love' with me?"

 

"Brian, I'm crazy in love with you." Jae’s breath was hot against his shoulder. “I’m so in love with you that I’m not sure what I’m going to do when you have to go back. I’m so in love with you that I’ve genuinely considered buying a plane ticket for the flight back to Toronto with you even though I seriously don't have the money right now. I’m so in love with you, I feel like I’m already counting down the days until we can meet again. I'm so in love with you that I can't even imagine my life without you in it anymore.”

 

He swallowed thickly, but couldn’t get the words to come. He felt a familiar sting in his eyes and tingle in his nose, and Brian really didn’t want to spend the last full day they had together crying. Instead, Brian pressed kisses to Jae’s neck, to the curve of his jaw, his cheeks, his lips. They didn’t say much after that, but Brian could feel it in every touch they exchanged.

 

_I love you, I love you, I love you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had an insanely hard time figuring out how to end this story. It feels a little bit like a cop-out because I left the ending pretty ambiguous and open ended, but I didn't have any clue what I wanted from this when I started it either. I think you can just imagine that Brian and Jae end up happy and in love no matter where it is that they settle down.
> 
> Also not sure why, even though this is a Jaehyungparkian fic, everyone seems to show up except for Jae and Brian. I just really wanted to write something with anxiety-ridden friends. I think it's funny. Which is ironic because I'M the anxiety-ridden friend. I think I just want someone else to suffer for once.
> 
> I am Canadian. Data is absurdly expensive compared to everywhere else. I don't know why this is, but I do regularly thank God for wifi.
> 
> I legitimately tried to make the ending all smush and fluff, but apparently I can't be completely serious in any aspects of my life. I'm really bad at feelings and apparently am really strongly projecting that onto Brian and Jae. Oops.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, this is the first... anything that I've written in YEARS. Something about Day6 inspired me though.
> 
> I have no opinion about if longboards are actually considered skateboards. I longboard, so I might be biased, but I don't care either way. It's all just fun. But honestly, idk if Jae actually skateboards, the little thing he was riding around was just a little cruiser, but I though it'd be an easy way to get people to argue over the internet. And it's petty enough that I can see Brian feeling guilty about flipping ajor shit and getting someone in trouble. Even though it's internet trouble.
> 
> I love Jimin. And I love Eric. And I love Kevin. I love ASC. Somehow Jimin's texting voice ended up sounding exactly like one of my close friends.


End file.
